Friday, December 13, 2013

TSA Week in Review – 37 Firearms Discovered This Week – 30 Loaded

37Firearms Discovered This
Week – Of the 37
firearms, 30 were loaded and 12 had rounds chambered. See a complete list and
more photos at the bottom of this post.

EOD Training Kit (ORF)

Inert Grenade (SEA)

Inert
Ordnance and Grenades etc.
- We continue to find inert hand grenades and other weaponry on a weekly basis.
Please keep in mind that if an item looks like a realistic bomb, grenade, mine,
etc., it is prohibited. When these items are found at a checkpoint or in
checked baggage, they can cause significant delays in checkpoint screening.
While they may be novelty items, you cannot bring them on a plane. Read
here on why inert items cause problems.

Stun
Guns – 13 stun
guns were discovered this week in carry-on bags around the nation. Two were
discovered at Atlanta (ATL), another two were found at Las Vegas (LAS), and the
rest were discovered at Amarillo (AMA), Charlotte (CLT), Denver (DEN), Jackson
(JAN), New York LaGuardia (LGA), Myrtle Beach (MYR), Portland (PDX), Phoenix
(PHX), and Palm Springs (PSP).

Artfully
Concealed Prohibited Items – It’s
important to examine your bags prior to traveling to ensure no prohibited items
are inside. If a prohibited item is discovered in your bag or on your body, you
could be cited and quite possibly arrested by local law enforcement. Here are a
few examples from this week where prohibited items were found by our officers
in strange places.

A
knife was discovered concealed inside a supplement bottle at Nashville (BNA).

Left to Right - Top to Bottom: Firearms Discovered At PDX, CHS, DAL, GSP, SAT, SRQ

*In
order to provide a timely weekly update, I compile my data from a preliminary
report. The year-end numbers will vary slightly (increase) from what I report
in the weekly updates. However, any monthly, midyear, or end-of-year numbers
TSA provides on this blog or elsewhere will not be estimates.

Unfortunately
these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about
these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are
finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the
throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up
with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. The passenger can face a
penalty as high as $7,500.00. This is a friendly reminder to please
leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an
individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law
enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had
these items.

Which photo is the tiny toy prop gun stolen, er, confiscated by a TSA screener this week? According to one of your TSA spokespeople, taking the toy gun from the craft business owner/creator was a "good catch" because a two-inch prop was a threat to aviation safety.

What happened to the December 10 Travel Tips post? To many Sock Monkey questions that make TSA look like Keystone Kops? And just where is the picture of this dangerous gun? We know how TSA loves to pat its own back over these interdeceptions of dangerous items.

And once again nothing found that shows any value in TSA's Strip Search machines.

When will TSA address the GAO report showing that the BDO program is a total waste of taxpayer monies?

Nice photos. Week after week after week. Why not remedy the situation? No doubt finding these items slows operations, imperils innocent people. Why is there no down side to trying to bring dangerous or simulated dangerous material aboard aircraft?

If not criminal penalties, civil fines for those caught trying to bring contraband on aircraft should be levied. A few $1,000 fines would attract some attention of people thinking of traveling with contraband.

Maybe it would crash the market for phony grenades. (I don't know anyone that walks around with a grenade, live, simulated or otherwise. Why are people trying to fly with them?)

Can you tell us this week how many false positives the naked body scanners had? How many people found themselves groped and assaulted because of surgical dressings, ostomy bags, insulin pumps, and other completely harmless medical devices that should remain private?

Why does TSA continue to use the body scanners? Every item reported in this blog is detectable by a metal detector or the baggage x-ray. Metal detectors and baggage x-rays are more reliable than body scanners and are minimally invasive.

Also, please explain the 10/18 cash seizure at a TSA checkpoint, please discuss how TSA will respond to the recent GAO report on the BDO program, and please provide an independent risk assessment to justify continuation of the PreCheck program.

arent there signs posted at the tsa area that state that these items are not allowed??? arent all of these items including the sock monkey gun and unloaded firearms allowed on the plane in checked luggage? why is tsa getting the blame? if travelers would do research ahead of time or even read the numerous signs while waiting in line maybe most or even all of these items would not need to be be surrender.

Hey TSAnonymous, millions of items including water, sock monkey prop pistols, tools, shampoo, and a few weapons are not "surrendered." They are confiscated by the TSA without receipt or compensation. In fact, many infrequent flyers don't know, and aren't told by screeners such as you, that they can take (legal) items out of the screening area and put it in their cars, check it, or mail it.

Additionally, items that are allowed at one airport are denied at another. Reading the poorly written, sized, and placed signs won't help.

What happens to all of the flying public's private property seized by the government? What isn't taken home by screeners is sold by state governments. It's a small revenue stream for the local boys, but it has cost the flying public billions of our hard-earned money.